Episode 240: Several of the Finest Listener Emails
Date July 10, 2013 Summary Ben and Sam answer listener emails about the best name for a future baseball player, no-trade clauses, RBI and wins, and a starter with Mariano Rivera’s cutter. Cameo by a raccoon. Topics * Catcher framing in the All-Star game * Best baseball names * No-trade clauses * RBIs and wins to judge players * Mariano Rivera's cutter Intro Congressman Mike Rogers sound clip Banter * Sam says that .240 is where a bad batting average becomes just a mediocre batting average. * Ben has not slept since they recorded Episode 239. * The Cardinals released Ty Wigginton. * Having trouble remembering player details that are easy to lookup (handedness, jersey number, etc.). Email Questions * Jason: "Do you care about catcher framing in the All-Star game? If you're choosing between Jonathan Lucroy and Carlos Santana and stipulating that each has the same value but Lucroy's comes from defense/framing, whom do you take?" * Jason: "If you wanted to maximize the chance that your son would be a Major League player, what first name should you give him?" * Matthew: "There's been some talk recently about the possibility of the brewers trading Yovani Gallardo. One of the issues that has come up is that in Yo's contract there is a clause that allows him to block trades to 10 teams. While I can understand why a player would have a no-trade clause that covers all other teams, a limited set of teams does not make sense unless they are teams in which the player has had bad experiences. What is the advantage of such a list to both the player and the team?" * Eric ("our pal"): "Sam mentioned that sometimes the worst stat is enough to tell the story. Let's put this to the test using two of the worst stats, RBI and wins. How many of each of these would a player need to allow you to be confident that they were the best hitter or pitcher in the league with no other information? With your standard 20-win or 100 RBI season, it's very possible that they weren't great, but what if they had 25 wins and 160 RBI. 30 and 200? What would you guys set at the limit? It's not really conceivable that a hitter with 300 RBI would not be the best hitter." * Doug: "I get that generally speaking relievers wouldn't be as effective as starters because they work much harder for a shorter duration. This is evidenced by Aroldis Chapman throwing 101 for one inning but probably around 94-95 if he were to pitch as a starter. Mariano Rivera has pretty much thrown around 92 MPH for his entire career basically just using his cutter. He's one of the few pitchers I know of anyway who exclusively throws a 'here it is hit it' pitch that isn't a 100 MPH fastball. So my question is, not necessarily could Mariano Rivera be a starter, but is it possible that if someone with slightly better arm strength could learn Rivera's cutter we could see a starting pitcher with Rivera's numbers, given that the pitch is only throw at 92 MPH? Seeing as Rivera isn't the classic 'I throw it as hard as I possibly can for an inning' reliever it seems doable if someone else could learn the cutter like that." Notes * Do umpires act/call differently in the All-Star game? * Sam picks Casey as his answer to Jason's name question. Ben chooses Scrappy to 'associate something positive with baseball men'. Other names discussed are Jeff, Slugger, and Ace. * There have been two MLB players named Scrappy (not since 1917). * Sam brings up "Wonderful Terrific Monds III," who played in the minors during the '90s and was famous mostly for his unique name but never made it above AA. * Ben thinks he got into baseball cards around 1994, and Sam says the golden years were around '89-'93, before the industry was "subsumed" by parallels and inserts. * Ben says 22 wins would make him mostly certain a pitcher was the best in the league. Sam finds that absurd and says he thinks 26. For RBI, Ben says 155, Sam thinks at least 160. * Sam can't trace where a noise is coming from and is terrified that it's a raccoon that could get him. * Ray Durham was 0-26 for his career against Mariano Rivera. Links * Effectively Wild Episode 240: Several of the Finest Listener Emails Category:Email Episodes Category:Episodes